Emiliano Gonzalez, UC San Diego baseball’s catcher, has been named to the Big West Baseball Preseason Coaches’ Team, the conference announced Friday.
Also announced Friday, the Tritons were picked to finish in fifth place in the Coaches’ Preseason Poll. Gonzalez was the lone Triton named to the team.
The graduate student is back for his fourth season with the Tritons, and his 2024 campaign was one that saw him lead the team in many categories. Gonzalez led UC San Diego in hits (52) and RBI (46) and he finished second with a .317 batting average.
Gonzalez started 45 games for the Tritons, where he collected 14 multi-hit games and a team-high 16 multi-RBI games.
In other news, UC San Diego as a whole earned 63 points in the Coaches’ Preseason Poll. Only UC Santa Barbara (99 points), UC Irvine (89 points), Cal Poly (79 points) and Hawai’i (76 points) were slated to finish above the Tritons.
The Tritons are fresh off a season where they finished with a 17-13 conference record, and a 30-23 overall record. That record, and fifth-place finish, would have been enough for the Tritons to qualify for the Big West Championship. However, due to the NCAA’s four-year reclassification period, UC San Diego’s programs are only now eligible for the Big West and NCAA postseason in 2024-25.
The Tritons 2025 schedule kicks off with a three-game series at Pacific, which starts on Feb. 14 at 6 p.m. PST.
